How can journalists fight the war on journalism, both in the U.S. and abroad? As governments hunt down whistleblowers, leakers and journalists alike, many reporters are worried they now work in a world that criminalizes their profession, calling this a “DEFCON 2 journalism event.” Most recently, Chelsea (formerly known as Bradley) Manning, the source of the Wikileaks disclosures three years ago was sentenced to 35 years in prison, and David Miranda was detained in Heathrow airport for nine hours while helping his partner, the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald, obtain documents related to NSA spying. How worried should journalists be when reporting on political, international affairs or national security? How should journalists work in the surveillance state and continue to report? This week’s Mediatwits will feature Tow Center director and former Guardian editor Emily Bell, NYU J-school professor and PressThink blogger Jay Rosen and Free Press’ Josh Stearns. MediaShift’s Mark Glaser hosts, along with Ana Marie Cox from The Guardian, Mónica Guzmán from the Seattle Times and GeekWire and Andrew Lih from American University.

A screenshot of the Storify homepage May 15, 2013, which features the author’s story.

I published my first piece for PBS MediaShift today, compiling the social media and press clippings of the ongoing controversy regarding a Justice Department probe of AP phone records.

The Associated Press announced Monday that the Department of Justice had obtained two months of phone records from its journalists in New York; Washington, D.C.; and Hartford, Conn.

The DOJ sent the AP a letter last week stating that it secretly spied on 20 phone lines, some of which were used by five reporters and an editor who worked on a story about a foiled Yemeni bomb plot, which the AP believes may have been the unstated motive for the DOJ’s actions.

A screenshot of the PBS MediaShift homepage May 15, 2013, which features the author’s story.